Install Instructions
(make sure to modify all instructions to include the version numbers for the zips)

1) Download the costume pack for the costume/part you want to replace graphics for. For example, if you want to customize the archer’s default costume, download “Costumes/ar_normal (Archer Default).zip”.

2) Extract the zip somewhere and open up the folder.

3) Decide on which costume parts to use for your custom costume (one wing, helmet, body, boots, glove, and leg file, plus two weapon parts). I am personally using so_shironagi_d03 costume parts and xmas01 weapons. See here for photo-galleries of how each costume looks.

Note: Don’t forget to remove ALL mods before doing a game update – otherwise the update process might screw up (and you’ll have to re-install Dragon Nest)!

FAQ

What is this?These are mods to replace your in-game character costume with custom ones. All costumes used already exist in-game; these mods change specific costumes to use different skin files (and thus graphics) of the costume of your choice

Is this legal?All these mods are client-sided only, meaning they only affect what YOU see (not what others see). Apart from making your character look more awesome/badass/cute/etc., they do not affect actual gameplay. From what I’ve heard, Nexon frowns upon client mods but historically hasn’t banned anyone (except on Vindictus where they’ve banned for using nude mods apparently). Needless to say, use these mods at your own risk ;P

How can I replace my character’s hair?Hair replacements aren’t included as custom hairs aren’t yet available on DN-NA. Some hair mods are available and can be requested here though.

How can I mod my current costume?As of the moment, these packs only provide graphic replacements for the weapons, default costumes, a few costumes in the DN-NA cash shop, the R2G hat, the Loyal Dragon Wings and the White Cupid Wings. I’m sure in the future more costumes will be available in-game and you will want to wear those instead (for the bonus stats). If you want to replace the graphics of your current in-game costume, you will have to modify and re-run the scripts in “dn-costumes-tools.zip” to recreate all the mods for your specific costume .skn files. To figure out the .skn file name of your costume, see the custom costume modssection below.

How can I use the full-body costumes (e.g. school, china, etc.)?The default costume is constructed from individual body parts, but those special costumes are full-body. The only way to use those costumes would be to wear a full-body costume and replace the .skn of that particular costume with the .skn of your desired costume. There currently aren’t any full-body costumes available in DN-NA, so I did not make any costume mod for those.

Costume mod file xxx.pak doesn’t work!I have not tested most of these .paks as there’s far too many. I also do not have any wings or hats so I cannot test modding for those two parts (if you’re feeling generous though, feel free to mail some to Majestyca on the Argenta server of DN-NA). Please let me know regardless and I’ll remove them from the costume pack downloads (until a workaround is found).

Creating custom costume mods(advanced!)

DNCostumeRenamer is a small program I wrote to automate the renaming for costume .skn files. The source code is included in the “dn-costumes-tools.zip” download and it is licensed under GPLv2. It is used in a series of scripts which will help automate the costume mods making process.

0) Install the Java SE Development Kit. This is needed for the scripts to call Java .jar files.
1) Download and extract “dn-costumes-tools.zip” to your C drive (e.g. you will end up with “C:dn-costumes-toolsTools”). It is necessary to keep the path name as short as possible due to a bug in pakpack.exe that occasionally screws up with long filenames (I even rename “dn-costumes-tools” to “d” just to be safe).

2) Copy Resource00.pak, Resource01.pak, Resource02.pak and Resource03.pak from your Dragon Dest install folder to the “dn-costumes-tools” folder (e.g. you will end up with “C:dn-costumes-toolsResource02.pak”). These files total to ~2GB, so make sure you have enough free space.

3) Figure out the name of the costume that you are currently wearing/want to replace graphics for. If you are wearing the Archer’s Regal costume, for example, the corresponding skin filename is ar_gejob_c (ar_gejob_c01, ar_gejob_c02 and ar_gejob_c03 are all different coloured versions). There’s three ways to figure out the skin filename. The easiest way is to look them up in the photo-gallery posted by Melon here. Otherwise, you can use either DNModelBrowser or SageThumbs. See the respective sections below.

4) Run the “0 All.bat” script and wait ^_^ If you don’t want to wait through the process for all the other classes and only want to generate costume mods for the sorceress default costumes for example, just run “1 Extract skn.bat”, then “2 Rename Costume so_normal (Sorceress Default).bat”, then “3 Repack.bat”. All the repacked .pak files will be saved in the “dn-costumes-toolsMods” folder.

5) Get customizing!

Using SageThumbs(advanced!)

SageThumbs is a shell extension that will allow you to view .dds files (as well as many other graphic formats) as thumbnails directly in Windows Explorer. Dragon Nest loads costumes by loading .skn files, which load graphic files saved as .dds files. By being able to visually preview .dds files, you can quickly match your in-game costume with its associated graphics files (and consequently .skn files). Note that these graphic files are FLAT, so don’t expect easy matching (look for matching colour schemes and features). You can also view individual .dds files using the WTV program (also included)

1) Install SageThumbs (included in “dn-costumes-tools.zip”).

2) Run the “1 Extract dds.bat” and the “1 Extract skn.bat” scripts.

3) Browse around the “Resources” folder and try to find the graphics that match your costume. For example, sorceress costume parts will be found in “Resourcesresourcecharplayersorceressparts”.

4) Find the corresponding .skn file for that .dds. That .skn file is the one you will want to be replacing in the above customizing section. Note that not all .dds files have corresponding .skn files (some .skn files are special and load multiple .dds files – these .skn files cannot be used for customizing).

5) If you decide to install an image editor capable of editing .dds files (e.g. there’s a DDS plugin for Photoshop and GIMP), you can also edit the raw graphics themselves. If you do that, don’t forget to show off and share your work with the community!

Using DNModelBrowser(advanced!)

DNModelBrowser is a nifty tool that allows you to view (and animate) 3D models outside of the game. Its also very useful for viewing all the different costumes. The following instructions are just for doing that.

1) Move ALL your custom .pak mods to somewhere safe (outside of the Dragon Nest install folder). The only .pak files you should have in your Dragon Nest install folder are Resource00.pak, Resource01.pak, Resource02.pak, and Resource03.pak. Having custom .paks may cause DNModelBrowser to crash.

2) Run the “DNModelBrowser” program (included in “dn-costumes-tools.zip”).

9) Repeat until you are happy with your costume combo. You can always restart by rendering the class’s .skn file or dummy .skn file (e.g. so_dummy.skn). You may also want to render a hair style (e.g. parts/so_hair02_pink.skn) and head (e.g. parts/so_head01.skn). Note that not all .skn files are supported by DNModelBrowser v1.

10) Click the drop-down arrow of the “Geosets” menu item and take note of all the costume parts you used. Those are the costume parts you want to grab from the downloaded costume mod packs (or modify the renaming scripts to use if you’re making a custom mod).

Next?

That’s all for now. Enjoy your costume mods and, if you have the artistic talent, go ahead and make custom costumes of your own (you will need to edit the .dds and .msh files with an advanced graphics editing program)! If someone figures out a way to do simple drop-in replacement for the full-body costumes, please share (I’m waiting for the school costume on my future majesty).